Root Cause

AI took your job. Your only option: carrots.

An idle farming game about vegetables, revenge and Dave, who needs the money. Start with a 3×3 plot, $15 of severance and a packet of seeds. Build a carrot empire, buy the AI company that fired you, and then make some very questionable decisions with it.

▶ Play in your browser View the source
Free. No account. No ads. Works on phones. Your farm saves in your browser.
CARROT NEWS NETWORKStudy: 9 out of 10 carrots cannot be automated.  ·  Local man discovers "touching grass" is also a career.  ·  OptimaAI launches "FarmGPT"; it has never seen a farm.  ·  Laid-off QA engineer rehired to repair the robots that replaced him. "I need the money," he confirms.  ·  Aunt Carol spotted at the county fair, judging pickles "harshly but fairly."
A carrot farm with farm hands, a tractor, rabbits and a golden carrot

What you'll be doing for the next six months

🌱

Grow carrots

Plant, harvest, sell. Twelve carrot varieties from Classic Orange to Grandpa's Heirloom, plus new seed packs you unlock as you franchise. Every carrot rolls a quality from Wonky to Legendary.

🧑‍🌾

Hire your laid-off friends

Farm hands, tractors, sales reps, a farm manager and a pack of very good dogs to chase the rabbits. The farm keeps working while you're away.

🏬

Build an empire

Roadside stands, juice bars, carrot cola, the Global Carrot Exchange. Eventually you can afford to buy OptimaAI, the company that replaced you with a chatbot.

🤖

Automate everything

FarmBots zap your farm hands and take their jobs. Laser drones replace the dogs. Only Dave can fix the robots, and he is not happy about it.

🧠

Deploy CarrotMind

An Artificial Garden Intelligence that runs every farm and every decision, forever. The robots are very excited. They keep asking when.

🟣

Buy Aunt Carol's beet farm

A whole second farm with its own crops, upgrades and businesses. It shares your bank account, but everything there costs a fortune, so your carrots have to fund it.

Screenshots

The beet farm, with round beets, a tractor and a golden beet
Aunt Carol's beet farm. Switch farms with the arrows. Both keep growing.
Robots converting the farm into server racks
CarrotMind online. The soil is theirs now. You were warned. Repeatedly. By email.
The game on a phone
On your phone. Same farm, smaller dirt.

Plays anywhere

Root Cause runs in any modern browser, on desktop or phone. There's nothing to install and no account to make. Progress is saved in your browser, and you can export it from Settings to move it to another device.

▶ Start farming

Questions people have asked, or might

How long does it take to "finish"?

It doesn't really end. It's paced like Cookie Clicker: your first franchise takes a few days, OptimaAI takes a couple of weeks, the beet farm about a month, and then it keeps going for as long as you do.

Do I have to keep the tab open?

No. Your farm hands keep working while you're away (up to 24 hours once you hire a good Farm Manager). Come back, collect, buy something, leave. That's the whole lifestyle.

Is this a commentary on AI replacing jobs?

It's a game about carrots. The carrots have no comment.

Who is Dave?

Dave was in QA. Dave got replaced. Dave works for you now, fixing the robots that replaced him. Dave needs the money.

Can I use the code?

Yes, for anything that isn't commercial: play it, mod it, learn from it, share it with friends. You can't sell it or use it to make money. See the license (PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0).